Ajay Kumar, Ph.D.

I am a postdoc fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Cheong-Hee Chang. I have done my Ph. D in Microbiology from India, and two and half year postdoc in Microbiology and Immunology, Wayne State University, Detroit, USA. I have joined the Department of Microbiology and Immunology in the University of Michigan in February, 2016. My main research interests are to find the metabolism in innate T cells and demonstrate that how they are different from conventional T cells. I have publications in the field of Microbiology and Immunology in reputed Journals. My short term goals are to publish papers in reputed journals and get a postdoctoral grant which is available for international students.

My research interests involve to investigate the molecular and cellular metabolic pathways in innate T cells and how they are different from conventional T cells. In our laboratory, we have PLZF tg mice in which CD4 T cells behaves like NKT cells, therefore, I am going to demonstrate the similarities in PLZF tg CD4 and innate NKT cells. Till now, we have demonstrated that PLZF tg CD4 T cells produce more ROS similar to NKT cells and produce more cytokines without activation. I have also demonstrated that PLZF tg CD4 T cells as compared to conventional CD4 from WTB6 mice, have less glucose uptake rate and less Extracellular acidification rate (ECAR) and oxygen consumption (OCR) rate as well. Further, I want to explore the signaling pathways which are regulating the different metabolism in NKT and PLZF tg CD4 T cells.

Immunological Techniques- Flow cytometry, FACS sorting, Flowjo analysis, ELISA analyses.

Molecular Techniques- Real-time quantitative RT-PCR, Western Blot analysis, Cell death analysis

Microbiology techniques-- Bacterial isolation and identification, Cell culture, in-vitro Cell culture, Bone marrow macrophages and neutrophils isolation and culture Microscopy- Fluorescence microscopy, confocal microscopy Animal handling, genetic fingerprinting, Statistical analysis of the data.

2015 Young Investigator award in Microbiology, from Raniyah Ramadan foundation for best presentation in microbiology at Association of Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) held at Denver, Colorado, USA.

2011 Bursary awarded by Wellcome Trust UK, to attend the Open Door Workshop: Working with Pathogen Genomes, held at ICGEB, New Delhi, India.

2010 Travel award by National Institute of Health (NIH), USA to attend and participate in 44th US-Japan CMSP Diagnostic meeting held at Penang, Malaysia.

2010 Travel award Department of Biotechnology, India to attend International conference on emerging infectious disease (ICEID) held at Atlanta, USA.

2009 Travel award by National Institute of Health (NIH), to Attend Emerging Infectious Diseases Conference held at San Deigo, USA.

2009 Travel award by Department of Science and Technology, India. to attend the 13th US-Japan CMSP meeting at Kolkata, India.

Ajay Kumar, Giri S, Kumar A. 2016. 5-Aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide ribonucleosidemediated adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase activation induces protective innate responses in Q1 bacterial endophthalmitis. Cellular Microbiology. ahead of print. DOI: 10.1111/cmi.12625.

Ajay Kumar, Ashok Kumar. 2015. Role of Staphylococcus aureus virulence Factors in Inducing Inflammation and Vascular Permeability in a Mouse Model of Bacterial Endophthalmitis. Plos one 10 (6), e0128423.

Ajay Kumar, Taneja N, Bhavneet Bharti, Meera Sharma. 2015. Surveillance and characterization of Shiga-toxigenic Escherichia coli strains isolated from cases of diarrhoea and hemolytic uremic syndrome in north India. Indian Journal of Medical Research, 140 (6), 778.

Taneja N, Mishra A, Kumar A, Verma G, Bharti B, Sharma M. 2015. Synergism between efflux pump expression and mutations in quinolone resistance determining region leads to enhanced resistance to fluoroquinolones in laboratory-grown mutants and clinical Shigella dysenteriae and Shigella flexneri isolates from India. Indian Journal of Medical Research, 141 (1), 8.

Ajay Kumar, Taneja N, Sharma RK, Sharma H, Ramamurthy T, Sharma M. 2014. Molecular characterization of Shiga-toxigenic Escherichia coli isolated from diverse sources from India by multiple locus variable number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA). Epidemiology and Infection. 42(12):2572-82.

Ajay Kumar, Taneja N, Sharma M. 2014. Epidemiological and environmental surveillance of Shiga toxin producing Escherichia coli, India. Foodborne Pathogens and Diseases, 11(6):439-46.

Taneja N, Appannanavar SB, Kumar Ajay, Varma G, Kumar Y, Mohan B, Sharma M. 2014. Serotype profile and molecular characterization of antimicrobial resistance in non-typhoidal Salmonella isolated from gastroenteritis cases over nine years, India. J Med Microbiol. 63 (Pt 1): 66-73.

Taneja N, Ajay Kumar, Appannanavar SB, Sharma M. 2014. Plasmid-mediated quinolone resistance in Shigella isolates over a decade in India. Journal of Global antimicrobial Resistance, 2(1): 59-60.

Ajay Kumar, Taneja N, Singhi S, Shah R, Sharma M. 2013. Hemolytic uremic syndrome due to Shiga-toxigenic Escherichia coli: a case report from India. J. Medical Microbiology, 62:157–160.

Ajay Kumar, Taneja N, Kumar Y, Sharma M. 2012. Detection of Shiga toxin variants among Shiga toxin forming Escherichia coli isolates from animal stool, meat and human stool samples, India. J Appl Microbiol. 113(5):1208-16.

Taneja N, Mewara A, Kumar A, Verma G, Sharma M. 2012. Cephalosporin-resistant Shigella flexneri over 9 years (2001-09) in India. J Antimicrob Chemother. 67(6):1347- 53.

Systematic Reviews 

Ajay Kumar, Singh M, Thumburu KK, Jaiswal N, Kaur H, Sharma S, Agarwal A. 2013. Hib vaccine in India: a case for universal immunization. Vaccine. 31(37):3763-5.

KK Thumburu, M Singh, RR Das, Jaiswal N, Agarwal A, Kumar A, H Kaur. 2015. Two or three primary dose regime for Haemophilus influenzae type b conjugate vaccine: meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials Therapeutic Advances in Vaccines, 3(2): 31–40.

Kiran K Thumburu, Singh M, Jaiswal N, Kumar A, Jindal I, Elizabeth B, Agarwal A, Kaur H, Dhatwalia SK, Soundappan K and Bhavneet Bharti. Proportion of Invasive Haemophilus influenza Type B disease in Indian children under 5 years of age: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Accepted with minor revision. Biomed Research International.

Nishant Jaiswal, Ritika Kondel, Kiran K Thumburu, Nusrat Shafiq, Navjot Kaur, Ajay Kumar, Harpreet Kaur, Neelima Chadha, Neeraj Gupta, S. Malhotra, Amit Agarwal and Meenu Singh. 2015. Feasibility and usefulness of gentamicin for use at community level: A systematic review based guidance for policy decisions. Accepted in World Journal of Pediatrics in 2015.Epub ahead for print.

Jaiswal N, Singh M, Thumburu KK, Bharti B, Agarwal A, Kumar A, Kaur H, Chadha N. 2014. Burden of invasive pneumococcal disease in children aged 1 month to 12 years living in South Asia: a systematic review. PLoS One. 9(5):e96282.

Jaiswal N, Singh M, Das RR, Jindal I, Agarwal A, Thumburu KK, Kumar A and Chauhan A. 2014. Distribution of Serotypes, Vaccine coverage, and Antimicrobial Susceptibility Pattern of Streptococcus Pneumoniae in Children Living in SAARC Countries: A Systematic Review. Plos One. 9 (9)- e108617.